Vallejo city website gets makeover

Until this week, some of the most basic information about Vallejo government and the city required the commitment of an archivist when it came to the city's municipal primary information portal.

The city, however, is hoping to solve this problem with the rolling out of its new website at www.ci.vallejo.ca.us, the subject of an approximately $90,000 facelift and more than a year's work of study.

"The concept is, with one click, you can get to information that you care about," Assistant City Manager Craig Whittom said. "The old structure ... was visually, not very appealing and didn't really encourage people to drill down into the menu format to get what they want."

The top "News" item on the site's main page is seeking community feedback on the new design. Whittom said the flexibility to continue updating site content, department by department, is one of the major benefits of the changeover.

"We had a very old website with limited functionality," Whittom said. "This is a component of the city's renewed emphasis on communicating with residents, businesses, visitors and prospective investors."

The site is set to provide more comprehensive public information, spelled out on the site and with more detailed city staff contact information, Whittom said. The public can also sign up for the weekly city newsletter, a biweekly city manager's report, a quarterly report on how Measure B tax funds are used, meeting agendas and more.

"Our categories are 'living here,' 'doing business,' 'attractions and events,' 'online services,' 'city hall' and 'about Vallejo," Whittom said. "We've spent a fair amount of time thinking about how different customers interface with the city."

A team of city staff members have worked with site developers for about the past seven months on the project, Whittom said.

Contact staff writer Jessica A. York at (707) 553-6834 or jyork@timesheraldonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @JYVallejo.